Iran's once rich ecosystem has become a victim of ill-advised and harmful decisions in the past four decades and those in charge must be held accountable for the devastation of natural resources, the Department of Environment head said.
“Policymakers [still] do not believe in sustainable development and their uninformed decisions have had a major role in the dire situation,” Isa Kalantari was quoted as saying by IRNA.
Water and soil have been plundered and from what is known the DoE lacks the clout to take on the energy and agriculture ministries and hold them responsible for the unprecedented environmental disaster.
“The two state bodies have long damaged the environment on the pretext of self-sufficiency in agriculture and promoting water-intensive industries. I am not disinclined to raise agro production, but if higher output means depleting water resources, it must be avoided.”
Giving an example, he said in the 1970s Kerman had 30,000 hectares under pistachio production that now has reached 200,000 hectares. The expansion has come at a monumental price by digging deeper wells and erasing groundwater resources at an unbelievable speed, the top environmental official said.
Not long ago Fars Province produced 2 million tons of wheat a year, now output is as low as 500,000 tons largely due to water paucity in the region.
“In less than 20 years farming will be a thing of the past in the western Zagros area, Alborz and the central provinces and eastern border regions.”
Echoing serious warnings by conservationists and economic experts, Kalantari said, "We have used up our entire renewable water. According to global standards this should not be higher than 40%.”
He recalled that the pressure has been exacerbated also by population growth with Iranians encouraged to have bigger families in the years after the revolution in 1979.
"In the first decade after the revolution, we saw a high population growth rate -- more than three percent annually," Kalantari was quoted as saying. That decision was taken "without paying attention to utilizing and improving" natural resources, he concurred.
The policy to push for self-reliance in agriculture was a recipe for disaster as it put the ecosystem under unbearable pressure resulting in soil erosion, desertification, drought, dry wetlands and sand storms.
Excessive withdrawal of water from wells was 200 million cubic meters a year in 1976 and has jumped to 20 billion plus cubic meters.
Water Conflict
“Earlier reports indicated unrest in and among water-stressed regions, but as the water shortages worsened conflicts are emerging and engulfing smaller communities,” he warned
Fear and fury because of water scarcity has been on the rise, and according to the press protesting peasants have at times blown up water pipelines transferring water to neighboring provinces.
In Feb 2013 angry farmers blew up the Zayandehroud river pipeline from Isfahan to Yazd Province. In August 2016, one person was killed and 108 were injured in clashes over water between protesting peasants from two neighboring villages in Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari Province.
In July, 2017 one man was killed and 12 others were injured in a fight over illegal water drilling between local peasants and the Law Enforcement Forces in Joghatai County in Khorasan Razavi Province.
Water experts namely Mohammad Darvish, deputy for education and public participation at the DoE, warned earlier that water-related disputes could turn into major conflicts within five years. The frequency of violence over water rights suggests the ‘war’ might come sooner rather than later.
A former agriculture minister in the 1990s, Kalantari said Iran cannot be self-sufficient in food for its estimated 83 million people "if we want sustainable policies".
“Even with access to modern technology Iran can be self-sufficient to supply food for 50 million people.”
Giving an example about DoE’s lack of power, he said a water transfer project from Safaroud Dam in Rabor County to the provincial capital Kerman “has continued for seven years without DoE permission.”
Urmia Lake
Water levels in Iran’s largest inland body of water (Lake Urmia) which showed marked improvement in 2020, is falling again because unlike most countries where protecting the environment is central, the Energy Ministry’s priority is farmers and not the plight of the environment or whatever is left of it.
“The current slump in water levels is largely the product of depriving the lake of its water rights from dams in West Azarbaijan Province.”
The ministry made an error of judgment by diverting the lake’s already depleting water to the farming sector. Such stopgap solutions, he stressed, are harmful to the lake for the restoration of which $1 billion was spent in the past decade.
The DoE official concluded that environmental scientists and specialists have apparently surrendered to politicians, most of whom are the least concerned about ecological disasters and national interest.
Without playing with words he said informed ecologists must insist on their valid stance and oppose the harmful decisions of politicians and vested interests. Failing to do so will lead to social and economic devastation.
